The Furman Advantage

The Furman Advantage guarantees every student an unparalleled education that combines classroom learning with real-world experiences and self-discovery. This integrated four-year pathway, guided by a diverse community of mentors, prepares students for lives of purpose and accelerated career and community impact—demonstrating in concrete terms the value of a Furman education.

█ CLASSROOM LEARNING

█ MENTORING AND ADVISING

ENGAGED LEARNING

CAREER/POST-GRAD
EXPLORATION & PREPARATION

█ CLASSROOM LEARNING

█ MENTORING AND ADVISING

█ ENGAGED LEARNING

CAREER/POST-GRAD
EXPLORATION & PREPARATION

█ CLASSROOM LEARNING

█ MENTORING AND ADVISING

█ ENGAGED LEARNING

█ CAREER/POST-GRAD
EXPLORATION & PREPARATION

█ CLASSROOM LEARNING

█ MENTORING AND ADVISING

█ ENGAGED LEARNING

█ CAREER/POST-GRAD
EXPLORATION & PREPARATION

STUDENTS GRADUATE READY
TO PURSUE MEANINGFUL
LIVES & CAREERS

At Furman, your advisor will do much more than just explain general education requirements. They’ll take the time to get to know who you are as a person. Your goals, your interests, and your career plans. Your advisor will keep you informed about what classes you need to be taking, and what opportunities exist on and off campus. They’ll help you choose a major and plot out a career path. By the end of your time at Furman, you’ll have a mentor you can always turn to for advice.

The Furman Advantage Infographic illustrates an individualized four-year pathway composed of the following.

Core:
Furman has a tradition of helping students develop healthy habits of self-reflection. It is at the core of this illustration because this self-reflection drives the student to make decisions that make their pathway their own.

Quadrant 1: Year One: Explore and discover.
Your first year is an opportunity to discover your skills, interests, values, identity, and goals by taking courses in a variety of different academic fields. At this time, students are settling into their new environments and focusing on classroom learning and are immediately connected with an advisor.

Quadrant 2: Year Two: Examine and Decide
Year two places an emphasis on inquiry and exploration which involves finding a major that helps you meet life and career goals, but that you also find appealing and fulfilling. Students achieve this by connecting their ongoing classroom learning and conversations with advisors and mentors with the idea of an engaged learning experience.

Quadrant 3: Year Three: Connect and Refine
In the third year, you have used your classroom experience, self-reflection and advise you’re your mentor and advisor to begin to focus your study in a major. It is also a time for you to take the initiative to seek out engaged learning opportunities where you are able to apply your developing knowledge and skills to meet real-world challenges, through opportunities such as internships, community engagement projects, or research experiences.

Quadrant 4: Year Four: Synthesize and Initiate
The fourth year is the culmination of your classroom learning, mentoring and advising, engaged learning experiences at Furman and is the time to reflect upon your accomplishments and set plans for post-graduation.

Fifth and Final Reveal: Students graduate ready to pursue meaningful lives and careers.

A PERSONALIZED, FOUR-YEAR PATHWAY TO GRADUATION

HIGH-IMPACT, ENGAGED LEARNING THROUGH RESEARCH, INTERNSHIPS AND STUDY AWAY

A TEAM OF ADVISORS AND MENTORS TO HELP YOU FIND YOUR PATH

LEADING INSTITUTES AND CENTERS TO EXPLORE AND TACKLE IMPORTANT ISSUES

A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE

The Furman Advantage promises a personalized educational experience that provides lifelong value for every student. These transformative experiences include:

Male student listens to headphones while studying

Self-discovery

A guided journey of self-discovery into a personalized academic path that tracks both progress and outcomes. Each student will embark on an individualized, coordinated, four-year pathway of academic study, reflection, and mentorship that corresponds with project-based and community-centered learning, career exploration and internships, faculty research collaborations, and immersive global experiences.

Students walk along path in rocky mountains

Interconnected student experiences

A set of interconnected student experiences in which each year builds on the year before, reinforcing the unfolding process of intellectual growth, self-knowledge, and professional preparation.

Professor and students chat in Townes Science Center

Team-based advising

An innovative, team-based advising model that will provide a community of expert mentors to help guide students along their path.

Engaged learning

Greatly expanded engaged learning experiences that connect classroom work to meaningful research, global study, professional practice, and projects that have direct community impact, enabling students to benefit from both our intimate campus environment and a university with infinite horizons that span from local to global.